War and Peace : Book 05, Chapter 22

1869

People

(1828 - 1910) ~ Father of Christian Anarchism : In 1861, during the second of his European tours, Tolstoy met with Proudhon, with whom he exchanged ideas. Inspired by the encounter, Tolstoy returned to Yasnaya Polyana to found thirteen schools that were the first attempt to implement a practical model of libertarian education. (From : Anarchy Archives.) • "It is necessary that men should understand things as they are, should call them by their right names, and should know that an army is an instrument for killing, and that the enrollment and management of an army -- the very things which Kings, Emperors, and Presidents occupy themselves with so self-confidently -- is a preparation for murder." (From : "'Thou Shalt Not Kill'," by Leo Tolstoy, August 8,....) • "...the dissemination of the truth in a society based on coercion was always hindered in one and the same manner, namely, those in power, feeling that the recognition of this truth would undermine their position, consciously or sometimes unconsciously perverted it by explanations and additions quite foreign to it, and also opposed it by open violence." (From : "A Letter to a Hindu: The Subjection of India- Its....) • "People who take part in Government, or work under its direction, may deceive themselves or their sympathizers by making a show of struggling; but those against whom they struggle (the Government) know quite well, by the strength of the resistance experienced, that these people are not really pulling, but are only pretending to." (From : "A Letter to Russian Liberals," by Leo Tolstoy, Au....)

CHAPTER XXII

In 1809 the intimacy between “the world’s two arbiters,” as Napoleon and
Alexander were called, was such that when Napoleon declared war on Austria
a Russian corps crossed the frontier to co-operate with our old enemy
Bonaparte against our old ally the Emperor of Austria, and in court
circles the possibility of marriage between Napoleon and one of
Alexander’s sisters was spoken of. But besides considerations of foreign
policy, the attention of Russian society was at that time keenly directed
on the internal changes that were being undertaken in all the departments
of government.

Life meanwhile—real life, with its essential interests of health and
sickness, toil and rest, and its intellectual interests in thought,
science, poetry, music, love, friendship, hatred, and passions—went
on as usual, independently of and apart from political friendship or
enmity with Napoleon Bonaparte and from all the schemes of reconstruction.